Literacy Facts Adult literacy has been declared by the United Nations as one of the basic human rights along with the right to adequate food, health care and housing. Most countries agree that literacy is a major problem in today’s world. Low literacy levels by any definition or measurement are endemic around the world. It is agreed that literacy is central to growth and development, but the benefits of literacy programs are poorly understood even today. Helping build a better understanding and helping inform our communities of the issues surrounding literacy and literacy programs is a central task of the Mayor’s Literacy Commission. Literacy is correlated to higher income and job productivity, lower rates of prison incarceration and reduced rates of welfare dependency. So, what is literacy? According to the 1992 and 2003 National Assessments of Adult Literacy, an official definition of adult literacy is “using printed and written information to function in society, to achieve one’s goals and to develop one’s knowledge and potential.” A national Adult Literacy Survey conducted in 1992 measured adult literacy in three areas: * Prose Literacy, which refers to written texts such as newspapers, poems and fiction. * Document Literacy such as being able to read and understand short forms or graphically displayed information such as job applications, payroll forms, bus schedules and maps. * Quantitative Literacy referring to one’s ability to read and understand graphs, charts or numerical data. It measures the ability to balance a check book, complete an order form or determine the amount of interest charged on a loan. In addition to measuring literacy in these three areas, adults were grouped in levels of ability ranging from Level 1 to Level 5. Level 1: Adults can read a passage of text and locate a single piece of information, find information literally matched to a question and perform single relatively simple math operations such as simple addition. Level 2: Adults can locate a single piece of information and compare and contrast the information based on certain criteria they cycle through information in a document or integrated information, and they can locate numbers by matching required information or perform a math operation according to specified numbers and operation. Levels 3 and 4: Require persons to match literal or synonymous information in text and to integrate with multiple pieces of information from one or more documents and perform math operations on two or more numbers or perform two or more sequential arithmetic operations. Level 5: Persons should be able to search through text and match multiple features and make certain high-level inferences, compare and contrast data, extract data from text and perform multiple math operations. It may help to think of literacy in successfully completing every day activities such as: Being able to sign his/her name Having the ability to read or write a simple sentence Displaying the ability to pass a written test of reading comprehension comparable to that of a student in the 4th grade A person is functionally literate if he/she can complete activities that allow a person to function in a group or community and continue to use reading, writing and math for personal and community development.